Donald Trump shares draft Iran peace agreement with Israel and other allies | US-Israel war on Iran
Donald Trump circulated a draft peace agreement on the war with Iran among his allies, including Israel, as both sides try to prevent new ceasefire violations from getting out of control and disrupting any agreement.
In a bid to speed up negotiations, Pakistani foreign minister Mohammed Ishaq Dar will fly to Washington on Friday to meet his US counterpart Marco Rubio.
Tehran targeted a US air base in Kuwait on Thursday after Washington struck what it described as an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the fragile situation as both groups of negotiators refuse to budge on final sticking points. Trump’s cabinet was expected to discuss the deal Wednesday, but Axios reported the US president He said he needed a few more days to think.
The draft shared by Trump is not very different from the draft that has been circulating in the Middle East for days, in which the Strait of Hormuz would be opened to commercial ships, the US blockade of Iranian ports would be lifted and Iran would be given access to up to $12 billion (£9 billion) in frozen assets.
The goal will be for commercial ships in the strait to return to pre-war levels within 30 days and to begin negotiations on the future of Iran’s nuclear program, which are expected to last up to 60 days. This would include discussions on the stockpile of highly enriched uranium, a time-limited suspension of further enrichment, and oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog. Iran will stop using nuclear weapons.
U.S. vice president J.D. Vance said Thursday that both sides are close to a deal but there are several sticking points in talks with Tehran over the enriched uranium stockpile and enrichment issue.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president will sign the agreement. [memorandum of understanding]. We’re going back and forth on a few language points,” Vance said.
China is pressuring the UN Security Council to approve any agreement.
The current scope of the agreement would be extremely unpalatable to Israel because it delays any definitive nuclear commitment by Iran and requires a permanent ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
The draft is less specific than Tehran’s version on lifting sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports. At the same time, free navigation is provided in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is trying to negotiate an agreement with Oman outside any memorandum of understanding that would result in the imposition of fees for “navigation services.” In comments that received no official response from Muscat, Trump on Wednesday threatened to “blow up” Oman if it tried to reach a deal with Tehran that included the imposition of tolls.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy made a statement reaffirming its control of the strait, stating that 26 commercial ships and oil tankers were given permission to pass through the waterway in the last 24 hours.
The Revolutionary Guard said that “obtaining permission is mandatory and passage through other routes will be considered a disruption.” Intervention was made on Wednesday night to prevent four ships from trying to pass through the strait with their transponders turned off. It was stated that two of them were stopped on the spot and both had to return.
The conflicts between the US and Iran so far have not stopped indirect contacts mediated by Pakistan and Qatar; But if oil tanker operators step up efforts to pass through the strait without Iran’s permission, the fragile ceasefire reached on April 8 could collapse.
Oil prices rose 2 percent Thursday morning but remained below $100 a barrel.
In Moscow, Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri reiterated his demand for the frozen assets to be released into Iran’s bank accounts without any conditions.
Washington responded by imposing sanctions on the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Iran established to manage the passage of ships through the waterway. Tehran is trying to secure Oman’s coordination agreement. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday threatened to target Oman if it helps implement a toll system across the strait and warned of sanctions against any countries involved.
As tensions mount in Iran over the wisdom of negotiating with Trump, the country’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei told officials not to turn differences into divisions and ensure the now-closed parliament deals with the people’s economic concerns.
Khamenei said that the United States and Israel “are trying to bring the country to its knees, and the enemy’s blind plan is to create division and destruction to compensate for their military defeats.”
Top diplomats in Oman were reportedly shocked and angered by Trump’s threat on Wednesday.
Oman, seen as a Western ally with a commitment to mediate in the Middle East, is in talks with Iran over the future of the strait but does not support a deal that would result in transit fees or heavy-handed Iranian intervention on free movement. Omani newspapers did not report Trump’s threat.
In a sign of the ongoing crackdown in Iran, Amnesty International reported that authorities have arrested more than 6,000 people, including protesters, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, dissidents and members of ethnic and religious minorities, since the United States and Israel launched an offensive on February 28.
